State Authorization Policy How to Register My Account
ACX ACX Kids
This class is for anyone who loves to draw characters, regardless of skill level. Create and develop characters for video games, animated films and illustrations through fun and exciting exercises that strengthen your conceptual ability and skills. Learn how to develop a character layout sheet, a model sheet and a turnaround. This class will emphasize brainstorming, along with conceptualization of a story and ideas.
An introduction to the fundamentals of digital photography. Through discussions of image quality and composition, create your personal vision and achieve meaningful images. Study the impact of black & white imagery, color theory, and storytelling. Explore the photography industry and different genres such as still life, street, portraiture, landscape, and documentary photography. Students must provide their own image-making equipment with memory capability. This could be a cell phone, an iPad, a digital or film camera.
Bring your characters, environments, props and story- boards to life. Explore light and shade, perspective, color theory and basic design techniques. Learn how to take 2D line drawings and process them into tones for a lifelike result. Also, explore arranging shapes, values, colors and edges in interesting and intriguing ways to create images that hold the viewer’s attention. Not only will your characters look more dimensional, but the environments and objects will also be more believable.
Procreate, the leading creative app made for iPad, is a portable art studio that allows you to create sketches, illustrations, animations, and paintings. This class will introduce you to Procreate's unique features and intuitive creative tools. It's ideal for anyone interested in fashion design, industrial design, entertainment, and illustration. Required: access to an iPad, Apple pencil, and a current version of Procreate.
Do you have an interest in art or design but not sure which field suits you best? Then this lecture/studio class is for you. Design 360º explores many of the majors in ArtCenter's degree programs, including: Advertising, Entertainment Design, Environmental Design, Film, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration, Photography and Imaging, Product Design and Transportation Design. Through individual projects, you will get the chance to explore the principles of each of these art and design disciplines. Drawing skills are emphasized as an essential way to communicate your ideas. This class is a perfect introduction for students new to Teens.
Apply your drawing and painting skills to produce a variety of projects, including album covers, ads and magazine articles. Learn the basics of color theory using acrylic paint and other media. The class also includes a survey of contemporary problem solvers and the history of illustration. Some previous study of drawing recommended.
Surrealist Pen and Ink
Comic Book Illustration
Illustration
Figure Drawing
Surrealist Pen and Ink
Character Design
Illustration
Creative Sketchbooks, Journals and Altered Books
Photography
Comic Book Illustration
Collage
Creative Sketchbooks, Journals and Altered Books
Illustration
Illustration
Creative Sketchbooks, Journals and Altered Books
Comic Book Illustration
Illustration
Drawing from the Nude
Photography
Spatial Experience Design teaches drafting and model making
Instructor, Chiaki Kanda
In the ACX Teens course Spatial Experience Design, taught by alum Chiaki Kanda, students learn conceptual thinking skills and fundamentals like drafting and model making.
“This is a course for curious and motivated students to learn from each other,” Kanda says. “It’s hands-on, involves multiple materials and media, and can get messy, but in a good way.”
The course draws from several disciplines, including architecture, interior design, landscape design, furniture design and branding. Projects may include designing a house, a restaurant or a retail store.
“I first ask them to share experiences they’ve had, good or bad, in a memorable space or place,” says Kanda. “Was it a building, an interior, an event, outdoors? We discuss what the defining elements were. Was there food, music, warmth, colors? Were you with friends or family?”
These initial conversations allow Kanda to introduce elements of the spatial experience by relating it to students’ everyday lives, she says. Using a sketchbook, pencil and tape measure, they record their proportions (height, arm spread, foot length, hand spread) and are reminded of the five senses: vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste.
“This equips the students with their personal reference, to measure anything they encounter,” Kanda says. “They’re given the essential tools they need and can take them anywhere to record their observations and to analyze and explore their ideas throughout the term.”
Students’ ideas evolve from a pencil sketch or an inspirational two-dimensional image into a freestanding, constructed form, she says. In the course, students experiment with a variety of materials—found, recycled or store bought—to shape their own voice.
“The model making process gives students the satisfaction of creating order from a seemingly chaotic mix of materials, colors, textures and forms,” says Kanda.
Students are encouraged to use their smartphones to create multimedia presentations with visuals and sound, including fly-through videos of their designs.
“We work to bridge the connection between the conceptual and the practical—known as form versus function,” she adds. “I tell the students that coming up with an idea is only 10 percent of the design process. The crux of the challenge is turning that idea into reality, to physically manifest and execute a three-dimensional representation of the vision in their head.”
For examples of student work from the course, visit the gallery.
Registration period
09.14Scholarship deadline
09.30Classes begin
11.03Last day to drop classes
11.25Holiday - No classes
12.09Classes end